Redwood Run

This weekend was the Redwood Run. The Redwood run is a motorcycle run up through the Redwwods on California Highway 101. The run ends at a camping area on the Eel River near Garberville, California. It is held annually on the second weekend in June. The bikers mostly Harleys start coming through the town of Willits where I live on Thursday night. By Friday afternoon there are hundreds of bikers coming through as there are several thousand bikers that partake in the event. The town rumbles with the sound of motorcycles. Outside of the two bars on main street there are rows and rows of motorcycles lined up. This year for some reason there were very few bikes lined up by the bars which I'm sure led to a far safer and sober event.



I only spent about twenty minutes or so creating some images of them as they sped out of town on the highway on Friday morning. It was a pretty cool sight to see as there were so many different styles of Harleys going by.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Tired of Finches?

If you aren't tired of finches I am. For some reason they seem to be dominating the feeder that I have set up on the Burris Ranch in the Little Lake Valley. For those of you new to my blog that is the valley close to where I live up in the redwoods of Northern California.



This morning I was actually happy to have two birds come to my feeder that I'm normally not happy to see as they are so common. I rarely photograph them because of that reason. They are easy to find and photograph.So it was a nice change to photograph a Brewers Blackbird and a Scrub Jay when they stopped by the feeder for a snack.









God's precious light and love to all,

chris

Raid ur Kitchen - n Shoot

Just for fun I checked out this Facebook get together from the Abudhabi Photographer's Club. The idea was to raid your kitchen and photograph something. So check it out here at

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121044387936793&ref=mf

I wasn't quite sure how many entries were allowed so I only did one. In any case it was fun to try something that was out of the box and creative.



God's blessings to all,

chris

Birdy Bust

This morning I got up early and crept out of the house before seven to drive out to the blind and attempt to photograph the birds. As luck would have it my attempts were in vain. I had three birds come to the feeder and not one landed on the perch I had ever so carefully placed into position.

Giving up I decided to make the drive out Rock Tree Valley to check my other feeder. When I arrived I could see that the feeder hadn't even been touched. Now I would say that this really has me perplexed because I have never had a feeder go untouched for days on end. Usually at least some blue jays or a squirrel will find them after that long. I wandered around looking for birds for a bit and then decided to head on home.



On the drive home I found one cooperative California Valley Quail on a post beside the road to take an image of.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Hi Ho Silver!

Today was spent just hanging around the house with the kids. Schools out for summer as the song goes. This afternoon we organized a game of Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of Jays friends and one of our neighbors.We had a blast and all the adults that participated are sore.



This evening I got a chance to photograph a bunch of mares and their foals. A good friend of mine Israel wanted some documentation of this years crop of colts out on the ranch where he boards them. Luckily for me I had two great animal handlers (Israel's sons) to walk back and forth over the pasture driving the horses in front of me. Aaron and Josue you both did a great job!






The shoot was both fun and challenging and I will probably do it again to try and get a few more individual colt images.





God's blessings to all,

chris

Leapin' Lizards or a Cheap Model

My son Jay and my daughter Annika brought me a Northern Alligator Lizard they captured while restacking the woodpile. Alligator Lizards are tough little characters as far as lizards go. When cornered by predators bigger than themselves the go into attack mode. They hiss and bite at their attacker. As for humans they are pretty harmless because the lizards can't hurt you as the bite is less intense than being pinched by someone. It sure does make one pause when you go to pick one up and they start hissing and trying to bite you. Scary little devils!



In any case this morning I set up my trusty plastic tub and a rock. I placed them near the window and proceeded to get some really nice images of the little critter using a 100 mm. macro lens on a tripod. I used a piece of blue tagboard for a sky and I shot the lizard in a wide variety of different poses. I really like how some of the images worked out.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Finchy Keen and a Dragon Too

This morning I had finches coming out of my ears. They were almost non stop coming to the feeder out at a friends ranch. I stayed in the blind from just a little before eight until about a quarter after ten when the light started getting to harsh to photograph in.





The only other birds that came to the feeder other than the finches were a California Brown Towhee that didn't like my perch and a White Breasted Nuthatch that I chopped the top of his head off when I was taking his portrait. Those little nuthatches never stop moving! There was also a crow that landed in an old apple tree above me that was making the most amazing gurgles and croaking sounds in addition to its cawing.





When I finally got home I retreated to the back yard for my lunch where I spied a dragonfly that has taken up residence next to our small garden pond. So I added his image to this mornings collection.



God's light,love and blessings to all,

chris